Exploring New Frontiers in Security with Dell, Captain Kirk and Pepperdine University

During the annual RSA Conference this week in San Francisco, William Shatner reprised his Captain Kirk persona from Star Trek long enough to tell a record-breaking crowd that this year’s conference would boldly go where no other RSA conference had gone before. RSA executive chairman Art Coviello followed Shatner to speak about new frontiers in cybersecurity and call for cooperation and governance across all facets of the security industry to ensure a safer Internet.

For Pepperdine University, our ability to take a more proactive stance fighting security vulnerabilities has enabled the institution to lower its security risks and improve IT service levels. The increased use of personal devices across different platforms was taking a toll on the university’s ability to handle what they call “drive-by” downloads of information stealers, extortion-ware and spambots. This malware not only threatened faculty and student data, it drained IT resources and made it difficult for the school to meet emerging systems management requirements.

Thankfully, Pepperdine took advantage of Dell KACE Systems Management Appliances to view all devices connected to its network and then streamline how those devices are managed securely by enforcing compliance with the university’s security policies. With Dell Endpoint Systems Management, Pepperdine can secure, manage and maintain its critical IT endpoints to improve faculty productivity, protect student data and increase IT service levels. While reducing risk of malware, spyware and viruses, the empowered IT team has shifted out of reactive mode to focus on strategic IT initiatives that facilitate learning.

We applaud Pepperdine for its pragmatic approach to stopping the vulnerability caused by malware. But we’re not the only ones to recognize Pepperdine’s security savvy. On Monday, Feb. 24th, Pepperdine won a bronze award for Best Security Deployment at the 10th annual Global Excellence Awards sponsored by the Info Security Product Guide. Additionally, other Dell Software solutions garnered recognition with Dell One Identity Manager – Data Governance Edition winning gold for Best Security Service, Dell One Identity Manager – Access Manager winning bronze for Best Cloud Security and Dell Software for Change Auditor securing bronze for Best Compliance solution.

We’re proud of the recognition given our Connected Security accomplishments and are particularly pleased for Pepperdine’s opportunity to take a bow for lowering its security risks while improving IT service and focus. Pepperdine turned to Dell KACE to streamline system management, administration, configuration, patching, security policy management, system provisioning, OS deployment and application installation.

At Dell Software, we’re constantly collaborating with customers like Pepperdine to lend expertise and apply our solutions to ensure heightened cybersecurity and improved Internet safety. Our Connected Security solutions give customers the power to solve today’s toughest security and compliance challenges while helping be better prepared for the future.

Too often, organizations aren’t prepared adequately to face evolving security and compliance concerns. They don’t know how to combat malware and other unknown threats despite the significant costs and serious consequences they can cause. In fact, a new Dell global security survey pinpoints this problem by revealing a new generation of unknown security threats stemming from megatrends and technologies like BYOD, mobility, cloud computing and Internet usage, as well as internal actions both accidental and malicious.

According to the survey, the majority of IT leaders around the world didn’t view these threats as top security concerns and are not prioritizing how to find and address them. In fact, when respondents were asked to look at long-term priorities, only 37 percent ranked “unknown threats” as a top security concern in the next five years. Epidemic threats come from all perimeters, both inside and outside of organizations, and are often hidden in poorly configured settings or permissions, ineffective data governance, access management and usage policies.

At Dell, we’re committed to raising awareness about security concerns and are equally dedicated to helping customers enter new frontiers in cybersecurity with effective strategies and proven, award-winning solutions that enable meeting emerging technology and business requirements.

What are your plans for exploring new frontiers in security? I would love to hear what you are doing, so drop me a line at Bill_Odell@Dell.com to tell me more about your endpoint security plans.